Methods, apparatus, and computer readable media for confirmation and verification of shipping address data associated with a transaction

ABSTRACT

Methods, apparatus, and computer readable media for confirmation and verification of shipping address data associated with a transaction. The invention as described herein provides a method of verifying first and at least second shipping address information associated with transactions conducted over a telecommunications network. The first and second shipping address information can be stored respectively in a first format and a second format, such as respective speech and text formats. The method functions by accessing address information pertaining to a specific transaction by extracting the respective address information as stored in both formats. The address information is then compared to each other to ensure that they are consistent. If the address information as stored in the two respective formats are sufficiently inconsistent, the underlying transaction may be dispositioned in various ways according to the difference. Typically, the person with whom the transaction is conducted provides live voice data that is stored in a first data store, while a live operator interacting with the person transcribes this voice data for storage as text data in a second data store. The invention focuses on ensuring consistency between the address information as stored in these two different data stores for the purposes of both quality assurance and fraud prevention. Apparatus and computer readable media implementing the above-described method are also provided herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is generally related to data verification and morespecifically, is related to methods, apparatus, and computer readablemedia for confirmation and verification of shipping address dataassociated with a transaction.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are various instances when a caller contacts or is contacted by acall center. Such contacts can relate to an inquiry about goods and/orservices offered by merchants. While interacting with the call center,the caller can provide live voice/speech data to the call center, forexample, to conduct a transaction with the call center. Part of the datapertinent to such a transaction is a delivery address associated withgoods/services ordered by the caller. There are a number of limitationsassociated with ensuring at the delivery address is proper such as notcapturing the information correctly. As such, what are needed aremethods, apparatus, and computer readable media that ensures that a liveoperator is accurately capturing the address data as spoken by thecaller, both for quality assurance purposes and for anti-fraud purposes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods, apparatus, and computerreadable media for confirmation and verification of shipping addressdata associated with a transaction.

In one embodiment, a computer-based method of verifying first and atleast second shipping address information associated with at least onetransaction conducted over a telecommunications network and storedrespectively in a first format and in at least a second format includesat least the following: locating the first shipping address informationas stored in the first format, comparing the first address informationto the at least second address information as stored in the at leastsecond format, quantifying a difference between the first addressinformation and the at least second address information as representedin the first and at least second formats, and dispositioning thetransaction according the difference.

In another embodiment, an apparatus for verifying first and at leastsecond shipping address information associated with at least onetransaction conducted over a telecommunications network and storedrespectively in a first format and in at least a second format includingat least the following: means for locating the first shipping addressinformation as stored in the first format, means for comparing the firstaddress information to the at least second address information as storedin the at least second format, means for quantifying a differencebetween the first address information and the at least second addressinformation as represented in the first and at least second formats, andmeans for dispositioning the transaction according the difference.

In a further embodiment, a program storage device readable by a machine,tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machineto perform a method for verifying first and at least second shippingaddress information associated with at least one transaction conductedover a telecommunications network and stored respectively in a firstformat and in at least a second format comprises at least the following:locating the first shipping address information as stored in the firstformat, comparing the first address information to the at least secondaddress information as stored in the at least second format, quantifyinga difference between the first address information and the at leastsecond address information as represented in the first and at leastsecond formats, and dispositioning the transaction according thedifference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of apparatus constructed according to anillustrative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 a is a block diagram providing additional detail regarding theconversion/comparison apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an overall process flow provided according toan illustrative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an overall process flow provided according toanother illustrative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an overall process flow provided according toanother illustrative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a thresholding/dispositioning processprovided according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of apparatus constructed according to anillustrative embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a callermay use conventional telephone equipment (both shown collectively by thereference numeral 110) to contact, or be contacted by, a call center120, for example to order or inquire about goods and/or services offeredby merchants who are clients of the call center 120. While interactingwith the call center 120, the caller 110 provides live voice/speech data115 to the call center 120, for example, to conduct a transaction withthe call center 120. Part of the data pertinent to such a transaction isa delivery address associated with goods/services ordered by the caller110. To facilitate processing this transaction, the call center 120forwards the live voice speech data 115 to various entities within thecall center 120. One such entity is a live operator using conventionalcall center telephone equipment to access call center resources, bothshown collectively by the reference numeral 140. Another entity isspeech record data store 130, which stores an archive copy of all speechor voice communications received from the caller 110. Speech record datastore 130 can be implemented using any number of commercially availabledatabase management programs. Suitable programs are available fromvendors such as Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., IBM/Informix,and others. The speech record data store 130 functions according to theinvention to provide on demand a speech record of the address data asspoken live by the caller 110, which speech record is representedcollectively by the reference numeral 115 a.

Live operator 140 utilizes the resources of the call center 120 toconduct the transaction with the caller 110. One of the functionsassigned to live operator 140 is to process speech/voice data 115received live from the caller 110, and transcribe the same for storageas text/keystroke data 145 in a text record data store 160. Text recorddata store 160 may be implemented using similar technology to thatdiscussed above for implementing speech record data store 130. Bothspeech record data store 130 and text record data store 160 may behosted on the same computer hardware, or may be hosted on separate,respective computer hardware. Suitable host hardware is the Tandem™server available from Compaq Corporation (www.compag.com); however theinvention is not limited to such servers and may be practiced usingother hardware. In essence, the speech record data store 130 storesspeech or voice data 115 as captured live from the caller 110, while thetext record data store 160 captures corresponding text/keystroke data145 as entered by the live operator 140. The text record data store 160provides on demand a text record of address data as entered by the liveoperator 140, represented collectively by the reference numeral 145 a.As understood by those skilled in the art, the text record data store160 and the speech record data store 130 can be indexed by a uniquetransaction identifier, such that respective text data and speech dataassociated with a specific transaction can be extracted using thetransaction identifier as a unique key or index.

Conversion/comparison apparatus 150 is coupled to receive the speechrecord 115 a from the speech record data store 130, and the text record145 a from the text record data store 160. The conversion/comparisonapparatus 150 functions to ensure that the contents of the text record145 a as captured by the live operator 140 is substantially consistentwith the corresponding contents of the speech record 115 a as stored inthe speech record data store 130. In this manner, theconversion/comparison apparatus 150 ensures that the live operator 140is accurately capturing the address data as spoken by the caller 110,both for quality assurance purposes and for anti-fraud purposes. Theconversion/comparison apparatus 150 generates a difference signal 155,which indicates any difference detected by the conversion/comparisonapparatus 150 between the speech record 115 a and the text record 145 a.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the various componentsshown in FIG. 1, such as the live operator 140, the speech record datastore 130, the text record data store 160, and the conversion/comparisonapparatus 150, may be provided either within or without the physicalpremises of the call center 120. Specifically, the live operator 140 maybe employed as either an on-site operator reporting for on-site duty atthe call center 120, or may be a home or remote agent who accessesresources of the call center 120 while working at a physical locationremote from the call center 120. While the invention as described hereinis equally applicable to an on-site implementation at the call center120 or a home agent implementation, the invention may have particularutility as applied to the home agent context, wherein the home agentprocessing calls from caller 110 is not under immediate physicalsupervision by supervisory personnel.

FIG. 1 a is a block diagram providing additional detail regarding theconversion/comparison apparatus shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1 a,the conversion/comparison apparatus 150 includes speech/voice to textconversion apparatus 152 and text comparison apparatus 154. Thespeech/voice to text conversion apparatus 152 receives the speech record115 a as shown in FIG. 1, and converts this input speech/voice to a textequivalent, shown by the reference numeral 153. Technology suitable forimplementing the speech/voice to text conversion apparatus 152 iscommercially available from a variety of vendors, such as NuanceCorporation, whose web site is posted at the URL www.nuance.com. Similarvoice recognition or speech-to-text technology is available from othervendors as well, and those skilled in the art will understand that theinvention as described herein is not limited to technology provided byany one vendor.

Text comparison apparatus 154 receives as input the text equivalent data153 generated as output by speech/voice to text conversion apparatus152. The text comparison apparatus 154 receives as further input thetext record 145 a shown in FIG. 1. Text comparison apparatus 154functions to compare the text equivalent 153 of the spoken address datato the text record of the address data 145 a as entered by the liveoperator 140. The differences between the text comprising these twoinputs are output as the difference signal 155. The processing performedby the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 a may be performed either in real timewith the transaction being conducted with the caller 110, or in a batchprocess executed after the fact.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that shipping or deliveryaddress information in the context of the transaction environmentdescribed above typically includes street address, city, state, and zipcode information. Speech/voice to text conversion apparatus 152 as shownin FIG. 1 a can be adapted to use key words, panels, or other similarindexing mechanisms to locate and extract the speech and/or voice dataspoken live by the caller 110 corresponding to each of these fields, andto convert the same into equivalent text input to the text comparisonapparatus 154. The text comparison apparatus 154 can then do afield-by-field text comparison of the text record data 145 a to the textequivalent data 153, and quantify or store the differences between eachfield. As discussed in further detail below, depending on the level ofdifferences between the various fields in the address data, variousfollow-up actions may be taken to disposition the underlying transactionwith the caller 110.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an overall process flow 200 provided accordingto an illustrative embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 2, theprocess 200 includes locating address data as stored in a first format(block 210), comparing this address data to address data stored in asecond format (block 220), quantifying the difference therebetween(block 230), and dispositioning a transaction conducted with the caller110 in response to this difference (block 240).

According to various embodiments of the invention, the method caninclude converting a voice- or speech-based representation of theaddress data 115 a to a text equivalent 153, and comparing that textequivalent 153 to the corresponding keystroke data 145 entered by thelive operator 140. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an overall process flow 300provided according to such an embodiment of the invention. As shown inFIG. 3, the method includes at least the following. At block 310, themethod locates address data as stored in a text record 145 a by the liveoperator 140. At block 320, the method locates a speech record 115 a ofthe address data as stored within speech record data store 130. At block330, the method converts the speech/voice record 115 a to a textequivalent 153, using, for example, speech recognition or speech-to-texttechnology available from a variety of vendors as discussed above. Atblock 340, the method quantifies a difference between the text record145 a obtained from the text record data store 160 and the textequivalent 153 obtained above from the speech/voice record 115 a asstored in the speech record data store 130. At block 240, the methoddispositions the underlying transaction in response to the abovedifference between the text record 145 a and the text equivalent 153.

According to other embodiments of the invention, the method can includeaccessing the speech record 115 a of the address as spoken by thecaller, and comparing it directly to the corresponding text record 145a. FIG. 4 is an overall flowchart of a process flow 400 providedaccording to such an embodiment. In this embodiment, the method 400includes at least the following. At block 410, the method locates theaddress data 115 a as stored in the speech record data store 130. Atblock 420, the method located corresponding address data 145 a asentered by the live operator 140 in the text record data store 160. Atblock 430, the method compares the address data 115 a from the speechrecord data store 130 to the address data 145 a as stored in the textrecord data store 160.

The comparison represented by block 430 can include a manual comparison,wherein supervisory personnel at the call center 120 may listen to thespeech record 115 a obtained from speech record data store 130, whilealso reviewing the corresponding text record entry 145 a from the textrecord data store 160. Conversely, the comparison represented by block430 may include utilizing a text to speech conversion engine, which isavailable from a variety of vendors (including Nuance), and feeding theoutput of this engine to an automated function that compares this outputto the corresponding speech data 115 a obtained from the speech recorddata store 130.

At block 440, the method quantifies any differences located between thespeech record 115 a of the address data as stored in the speech recorddata store 130 with the corresponding text record 145 a for the addressdata as stored in text record data store 160. In essence, thequantifying process 440 illustrated in FIG. 4, along with the similarprocesses 230 and 340, shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 respectively, includegenerating a score or other quantifying mechanism suitable forindicating how closely the various data fields comprising the respectiveaddress data as represented in the text record data store 160 and thespeech record data store 130 match. An illustrative embodiment of thisprocessing is shown in FIG. 5 below, and is discussed in more detailtherewith. In block 240, the method dispositions the transaction inresponse to the difference between the address data as represented inthe speech record data store 130 and the text record data store 160.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a dispositioning process providedaccording to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. As shown inFIG. 5, the dispositioning process 240 shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 mayfunction as follows. At block 242, a difference between city/state dataas contained in the text record 145 a and the speech record 115 a isevaluated and scored. If there is a significant difference between thecity/state data in these two records, processing proceeds to block 244,where the underlying transaction is flagged to indicate this status.Typically, a significant difference (more than a mere typographicalerror) between city/state data in the two records would indicate apossibility of either fraud committed by the live operator 140(deliberately misdirecting goods/services ordered by the caller 110 tothe live operator 140), or some other type of quality control issueinvolving the specific live operator 140. To address such issues, themethod advances to block 246, where an action is taken regarding theagent 140 in real time with the processing of the transaction with thecaller 110. Depending on the severity of the difference between therespective address fields, the live operator 140 may be taken off lineand prevented from handling further interactions with caller 110 orother subsequent callers 110, with the interaction with the presentcaller 110 possibly being resumed by supervisory personnel. Depending onthe resolution of the situation, the live operator 140 may be placedback on line later on, if circumstances warrant.

At block 248, the method can include correcting the text record 145 athe text record data store 160 for the current transaction. Thiscorrection may be facilitated by reviewing the correspondingvoice/speech record 115 a pertaining to the current transaction, whichis stored in speech record data store 130, or by entering the textequivalent data 153 directly into the text record data store 160. Theprocessing represented by block 248 may be conducted either manually bysupervisory personnel, or may be part of an automated process.Alternatively, as represented in block 252, the underlying transactionmay be held in a suspended status pending review and resolution of theabove-described issues, and not be forwarded to fulfillment, if at all,until the above issues are resolved. If such issues can be resolvedwithout additional contact with the caller 110, processing proceeds toblock 248 as described above, and then proceeds to block 250, where thecorrected transaction is forwarded to fulfillment.

If it is not possible to resolve the situation any other way, the methodproceeds to block 253, which represents an outbound contact to thecaller 110 to clarify the details of the transaction, including theshipping address to which the goods/services ordered by the caller 110should be directed. Once these details are clarified, the methodproceeds to block 250, where the corrected transaction is forwarded tofulfillment.

Returning to evaluation block 242, if there is no significant differencebetween the city/state data as represented in the speech record 115 aand the text record 145 a, processing proceeds to block 254. Asrepresented at block 254, the method evaluates whether any significantdifference exists in the street address portion of the text record 145 aand the speech record 115 a. If a significant difference exists,processing proceeds to block 256, where supervisory personnel or anautomated process may review this address data in a batch or other typeof process. As represented at block 258, any errors in the streetaddress are corrected as necessary, either manually by supervisorypersonnel, or automatically in a batch type process. The correctedtransaction is then sent to fulfillment, as represented by block 250.

Returning to FIG. 2, the program of instructions can be loaded andstored onto a program storage medium or device 201 readable by acomputer or other machine, embodying a program of instructionsexecutable by the machine to perform the various aspects of the methodas discussed and claimed herein, and as illustrated in the Figures.Generally speaking, the program storage medium 201 can be implementedusing any technology based upon materials having specific magnetic,optical, semiconductor or other properties that render them suitable forstoring computer data, whether such technology involves either volatileor non-volatile storage media. Specific examples of such media caninclude, but are not limited to, magnetic hard or floppy disks drives,optical drives or CD-ROMs, and any memory technology based onsemiconductors or other materials, whether implemented as read-only orrandom access memory. In short, this embodiment of the invention mayreside either on a medium directly addressable by the computer'sprocessor (main memory, however implemented) or on a medium indirectlyaccessible to the processor (secondary storage media such as hard diskdrives, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, floppy drives, or the like).Consistent with the above teaching, program storage device 201 can beaffixed permanently or removably to a bay, socket, connector, or otherhardware provided by the cabinet, motherboard, or other component of agiven computer system.

Those skilled in the art will also understand that a computer programmedin accordance with the above teaching using known programming languagesprovides means for realizing the various functions, methods, andprocesses as described and claimed herein and as illustrated in thedrawing figure attached hereto.

Various embodiments of the invention are described above to facilitate athorough understanding of various aspects of the invention. However,these embodiments are to be understood as illustrative rather thanlimiting in nature, and those skilled in the art will recognize thatvarious modifications or extensions of these embodiments will fallwithin the scope of the invention, which is defined by the appendedclaims.

1. A computer-based method of verifying first and at least secondshipping address information associated with at least one transactionconducted over a telecommunications network and stored respectively in afirst format and in at least a second format, the method including atleast the following: locating the first shipping address information asstored in the first format, wherein the first shipping addressinformation is provided during a customer initiated call over thetelecommunications network; comparing the first address information tothe at least second address information as stored in the at least secondformat, wherein the comparing includes a field-by-field comparison ofthe first address information and the second address information;quantifying a difference between the first address information and theat least second address information as represented in the first and atleast second formats, wherein the quantifying generates a scoreindicating how closely the field-by-field comparison match; wherein ifthe field-by-field comparison are closely matched relating to city andstate data of the address information, quantifying a difference betweena street address portion of the address information; and dispositioningthe transaction according to either of the differences.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein at least comparing the first address information to theat least second address information and quantifying a difference betweenthe first address information and the at least second addressinformation are performed in real time relative to acquisition of thefirst and at least the second address information.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein locating the first address information includeslocating address information stored as a text record.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein comparing the first address information includesconverting the at least second address information stored as a speechrecord into a text equivalent, and comparing the text equivalent to thefirst address information stored as text.
 5. The method of claim 4,wherein quantifying a difference includes identifying a difference inrespective data fields between the text equivalent and the first addressinformation stored as text.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein locatingthe first address information includes locating the first addressinformation stored as a speech record.
 7. The method of claim 6, whereinlocating the first address information includes using an indexingmechanism to locate the first address information stored as a speechrecord.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the first addressinformation includes comparing the first address information stored as aspeech record to the at least second address information stored as atext record.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein quantifying a differenceincludes identifying a difference in respective data fields between thefirst address information stored as a speech record and the at leastsecond address information stored as a text record.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein quantifying a difference includes establishing at leastone threshold for a difference between respective text and speechrepresentations of the first and at least second address information.11. The method of claim 1, wherein quantifying a difference includesestablishing a first threshold and at least a second threshold for adifference between respective text and speech representations of thefirst and at least second address information.
 12. The method of claim1, wherein dispositioning the transaction includes suspending processingof the transaction.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein dispositioningthe transaction includes taking immediate action regarding an agentprocessing the transaction.
 14. The method of claim 1, whereindispositioning the transaction includes reviewing the first and at leastthe second address information associated with the transaction in abatch process before sending the transaction to a fulfillment entity.15. Apparatus for verifying first and at least second shipping addressinformation associated with at least one transaction conducted over atelecommunications network and stored respectively in a first format andin at least a second format, the apparatus including at least thefollowing: means for locating the first shipping address information asstored in the first format, wherein the first shipping addressinformation is provided during a customer initiated call over thetelecommunications network; means for comparing the first addressinformation to the at least second address information as stored in theat least second format, wherein the comparing includes a field-by-fieldcomparison of the first address information and the second addressinformation; means for quantifying a difference between the firstaddress information and the at least second address information asrepresented in the first and at least second formats, wherein thequantifying generates a score indicating how closely the field-by-fieldcomparison match; wherein if the field-by-field comparison are closelymatched relating to city and state data of the address information,quantifying a difference between a street address portion of the addressinformation; and means for dispositioning the transaction according thedifference.
 16. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangiblyembodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to performa method for verifying first and at least second shipping addressinformation associated with at least one transaction conducted over atelecommunications network and stored respectively in a first format andin at least a second format, the method comprising at least thefollowing: locating the first shipping address information as stored inthe first format, wherein the first shipping address information isprovided during a customer initiated call over the telecommunicationsnetwork; comparing the first address information to the at least secondaddress information as stored in the at least second format, wherein thecomparing includes a field-by-field comparison of the first addressinformation and the second address information; quantifying a differencebetween the first address information and the at least second addressinformation as represented in the first and at least second formats,wherein the quantifying generates a score indicating how closely thefield-by-field comparison match; wherein if the field-by-fieldcomparison are closely matched relating to city and state data of theaddress information, quantifying a difference between a street addressportion of the address information; and dispositioning the transactionaccording to either of the differences.